


the most selfless reason

by niawheelers



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Has a Crush on Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng Fluff, Adrinette | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Bad Parent Gabriel Agreste, F/M, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Pre-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Scarf Reveal, So does Adrien, marinette deserves the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:21:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29237487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niawheelers/pseuds/niawheelers
Summary: "It's just..." Adrien trailed off, trying to find the right words. "The day after my birthday, and even after that, you saw me wearing that scarf and claim that my father had given it to me.""Yeah..." Marinette whispered. looking down at her rapidly bouncing leg."Why didn't you say anything?"
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 21
Kudos: 401





	the most selfless reason

**Author's Note:**

> SCARF REVEAL SCARF REVEAL SCARF REVEAL SCARF REVEAL SCARF REVEAL SCARF REVEAL SCARF REVEAL SCARF REVEAL SCARF REVEAL
> 
> Hey guys! English is not my first language, so try to keep that in mind please!
> 
> Also, feedback is welcomed and encouraged hehe.
> 
> Hope you enjoy this one shot!

Adrien woke up to the sound of his alarm, groaning as he turned around in his bed to turn it off.

It was at times like this that he thanked the gods that he was a morning person. He just had to take a deep breath, roll out of bed and get into his shower, getting ready for the day. Everyone told him he was weird for it, but he just loved going to school.

School was were his favorite people were at. School was were Nino was, his best friend and the guy that helped him get out of his shell. School was were Alya was, the girl that made him laugh with her witty remarks and the one he could talk about his lady with for hours. School was were Marinette was, the cute girl that offered him sweet smiles and giggled at his bad jokes, even when no one else did.

So yeah, school was pretty awesome.

This week had been specially thrilling for him- his birthday was on Saturday and he knew his class was planning something for him, no matter how hard they tried to hide it. He just hoped they wouldn't get in trouble with his father.

Adrien smiled as he took his seat in the table of his dinning room. He couldn't help but wonder if his dad would gift him something as special as his scarf of last year, the one he had decided to wear to school that same day, and the thought of that excited him. Maybe things were finally getting better between the two Agrestes. 

Just as if he had summoned him, his father entered the room followed closely by Nathalie. The man nodded at him as a greeting, to which Adrien returned the gesture. "Good morning father."

"Good morning Adrien." Adrien briefly wondered if his father would have breakfast with him, but the tiny hope that had sparked inside him faded as Gabriel took Nathalie's tablet into his own hands. He watched as his father scrolled down, seemingly revising his scheduled for the day, before he raised his gaze back to him, frowning. "Where did you get that from?"

"Huh?" Adrien raised an eyebrow as he scanned himself, trying to find something out of the ordinary in his appearance. "What do you mean?"

"That scarf you're wearing." Gabriel replied sternly. "You know you're not allowed to wear anything that isn't officially part of our family brand."

"My scarf?" Adrien took a hand to caress the soft baby blue fabric that hung from his neck. "It's not yours?"

"I don't know where you got that idea from, but no, it's not. I don't recall having seen that piece before." Mr. Agreste raised an eyebrow as he inspected the item his son wore. "While it does seem nicely done, you should know that it's not part of any of my collections."

Besides his father, Adrien saw Nathalie grimace.

"But I thought-"

"I have to go to my office now, Adrien." Gabriel passed the tablet back to his secretary before he made his way back to the room's door. "Please give Nathalie your scarf before you leave for school. We can't afford having our top model promoting any other brand."

Adrien touched his scarf again, and let out a deep breath as he looked down at his lap. "Yes, father."

As his father exited the room, Adrien looked up to find Nathalie staring down at him, pursing her lips. "Nathalie, this scarf isn't my father's."

It wasn't really a question, but still, she answered. "No, it isn't."

"I- I don't understand." Adrien frowned. "What happened?"

Nathalie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Your father asked me to get your gift at the last minute, and I'm ashamed to say I freaked out."

"So what did you do?" Adrien's eyes widened at the idea that had already formed in his head. But Nathalie wouldn't dare to do such thing, would she?

"A friend of yours delivered that scarf as a present for you earlier that day." Nathalie looked the other way, at least being decent enough to show remorse at her actions. "I put you father's name on her gift to claim it as his."

"Oh." Was all he managed to say as he processed what his father's assistant had just admitted. "Who made this for me, then?"

"I believe it was a classmate of yours." Nathalie quickly regained her composure, fixing her glasses as she looked back at Adrien. "She's won a couple of your father's design competitions, if I recall correctly."

There was only one girl in his class that came to mind. "Are you talking about Marinette?"

Nathalie seemed to take a moment to consider the girl before nodding once. "I believe I am, yes."

_There's a special design element that only the true designer knows about._ Marinette had said once, during the derby hat contest his father had held once. _I signed mine!_

Adrien unwrapped the scarf from his neck and took a moment to inspect it closely. It was clearly hand-made, something that should have tipped him off since his father never sewed anything himself before. He moved his hands all around the blue fabric, gasping as soon as he saw a little 'M' embroidered in the corner, hidden from plain sight. 

"Nathalie, I know my father asked you to take the scarf away from me." Adrien looked back at her, and waited for her to nod before he continued. "Please don't. This scarf... it's still really special to me. I'd like to keep it."

Nathalie exhaled deeply, tightening her grasp on her tablet as she nodded once more. "Be careful with it, Adrien, or we'll both get in trouble." She figured she owed it to him to at least let him keep the present.

Adrien nodded, and she hummed once at him before turning around on her heels. Adrien watched her leave the room, and once she was out of sight he allowed himself to let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

He had a lot of questions to ask a certain friend of his.

Trying to find Marinette by her own turned out to be even harder than he thought. She was always either with Alya, Nino, Juleka, Rose or literally any other classmate of his. It was quite infuriating, really. He was dying to know her side of things and he was yet to find the right moment to talk to her alone. 

As if the gods above him had found it in themselves to have mercy in him, he found the raven haired girl standing by the school's exit as he made his way to the locker room to change into his fencing attire. She was giggling with Alya, but he was done letting that stop him from getting his answers.

The blond took a deep breath as he approached the pair of girls, waving at Alya as he tapped Marinette's shoulder from behind. "Uh, hey Marinette."

Marinette's head turned to him so quickly he wondered how her neck didn't break right there and then. "O-oh, Adrien! Hi! What's up?"

"Can we talk?" He instinctively took a hand to the back of his neck, scratching it in a nervous mannerism he had adapted a long time ago. "Like, just the two of us?"

"Uhh-"

"Sure! She'd love to!" Alya grinned, grabbing her best friend's shoulders and pushing her towards the boy. "I'll just wait here for you so we can leave for rehearsal together, okay?"

"Um, sure." Marinette nodded to the brunette before turning back to Adrien, smiling shyly at him. "Lead the way."

Adrien nodded, and the two of them made their way back to the inside of the school, "So you and Alya are rehearsing for something?"

Marinette scrunched up her nose before gasping softly. "Oh, not really. We are going to Kitty Section's rehearsal since they have this huge gig next week."

"Wow, that's so cool!" Adrien smiled as they reached one of the school's benches outside a classroom. He cocked a brow at Marinette, who nodded in understanding before sitting down at the very end of the seat.

"So, what you did to talk to about me want? I mean-" Marinette cleared her throat, blushing sheepishly. Lately she had been able to talk to Adrien without stuttering as much, showing him a side of her he had only ever seen her display with literally anyone else, and he loved it, but she was obviously nervous and he wouldn't deny he sometimes found himself missing the flustered Marinette she used to be around him.

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, I just-" Damn, he hadn't really thought things through. How was he supposed to begin the conversation? Marinette was obviously growing uneasy with every second that he stayed silent, so he just decided to take his scarf off and take it to his chest. "I just wanted to say thank you, actually."

"Oh." Marinette frowned, scrunching her nose up once more. "What for? I haven't done anything."

"This scarf was my favorite present last year." Adrien smiled softly at the girl, letting out a breathy laugh as he saw her eyes widen comically. "So thank you for that."

"W-what-" Marinette spluttered, her eyes drifting from the scarf to his face a few times. "H-how did you-"

"My dad kind of told me himself without realizing." He chuckled, trying to ignore the pang that he felt whenever he remembered how his father hadn't even bothered to get him anything. "I asked Nathalie and she told me what happened, and by what she told me it was pretty easy to figure out whose scarf it was."

"Oh." Marinette repeated, seemingly taken aback by Adrien's discovery. "I- I don't really know what to say."

Adrien laughed nervously along with her, combing his hair back before he wrapped the scarf back around his neck. "I just want to know something."

"What is it?" Marinette cocked her head to the side, and that's when Adrien took notice of the way her cheeks were still dusted with pink.

"It's just..." Adrien trailed off, trying to find the right words. "The day after my birthday, and even after that, you saw me wearing that scarf and claim that my father had given it to me."

"Yeah..." Marinette whispered. looking down at her rapidly bouncing leg.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Adrien frowned, and regretted the question as soon as he saw the panicked expression that appeared in his friend's face.

Her big eyes widened even more, and the blush that had previously only covered her cheeks was now down to her neck. "Oh my god, you're mad aren't you?"

"What? No! I just-"

"And you have every right to be! I'm so sorry Adrien, I didn't mean to lie to you because I hate liars and I certainly hate lying to my friends but I didn't really know what to do because you are just _so happy_ and I-"

"Woah, woah! Marinette! Slow down!" Adrien scooted closer to her, placing a hand in her shoulder, which effectively made her close her mouth. "I'm not mad, I swear."

"Y-you are not?" Marinette looked up at him, blinking slowly out of pure surprise.

"Definitely not." He smiled at her in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture, and it widened when he saw the way she let out a breath she had been holding. "I just want to know why you didn't tell me."

"Well," The petit girl took a hand to her arm, rubbing it nervously as she looked to her side. "It's just- I saw how happy you were thinking it was from your father."

Adrien nodded, still a little confused but silently asking her to continue.

"And I hadn't seen you smiling like that, like, ever, I guess." She shrugged, raising her blue bell eyes to meet his forest green ones. Had they always been that entrancing? "I couldn't take that away from you."

Adrien blinked once. Twice. Her words kept replaying in his head as he tried to make sense out of them. "Wait, let me check if I get it."

Marinette hummed, biting her lip in a way that did not escape Adrien's attention. Had her lips always been that soft pink?

"You let my father take credit over your design, handwork and gift-" He cleared his throat. Why did he feel so nervous all of sudden? "Because it made me happy?"

"Well, yeah." Marinette giggled nervously, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. "That's why I made the scarf for you in the first place."

"Oh." The model said intelligently. He didn't know what this revelation was having such an overwhelming effect on him.

Adrien was used to people wanting to make him happy, that fact came with his last name. The people around him would always try to please him, and spoil him in ways he wasn't sure he even deserved. But those people always wanted _something_ in return. Being an Agreste came with certain perks that a lot of people could benefit from, he knew it and they knew it.

But Marinette hadn't expected _anything_ from him. She had taken time out of her day to design something for him, sew it, wrap it up and take it to his house to make him happy and make him happy _only_. The girl hadn't asked for recognition, for promotion of her work, or his father's approval. She hadn't even received a thank you from him and yet, she continued to smile softly at him as she admitted that she was completely content with only seeing him _smile_. 

It was overwhelming, really, to feel so cared for out of nowhere. It had been a long time in his life since anyone had done something just for the sake of making him happy and it baffled him how that someone hadn't even asked for the credit of it. How she had sacrificed her own recognition for the most selfless reason he could think of.

But he was talking about Marinette, after all. Sweet, kind, selfless and _amazing_ Marinette. Should he even be surprised?

"Wow." Adrien felt himself choke up, and cleared his throat in what he thought was a subtle way of hiding the emotions that were going through his mind and were making him feel warm all over. "Marinette, I- wow. Thank you."

It was Marinette's turn to put her hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze as her smile widened a little. "I have one question, though."

"Uh, yes?" Adrien responded, unable to ignore the warmth that her touch provided. Had she always had those tiny freckles spread across her nose and cheeks?

"Does this mean that you like the scarf?" The girl grinned at him, seemingly unaware of the effect that she was having on the model right there.

He couldn't help but smile softly at her. "It means that I love it."

They continued to smile at each other for what was probably a couple of seconds but felt like an eternity for Adrien. Had her smile always been that mesmerizing?

"Hey girl!" Alya's voice cut off what the blond would like to call 'a moment', and the two whipped their heads around to find the blogger yelling from the school's entrance. "We gotta go! Juleka says Luka is waiting for you to start!"

Adrien was startled by the sudden pang he felt in his chest at the mention of the older boy. Luka was his friend, so why was he feeling so torn over him and Marinette spending time together? They were friends, too!

He turned to look at Marinette as she stood up from the bench, still smiling down at him as he admired the way the sunlight reflected on her hair. "I gotta go Adrien, but I'll see you tomorrow, right?"

Adrien could only find it in himself to nod at her, and the moment she took her hand off his shoulder to wave at him he couldn't help but miss her warmth. His shoulder felt cold now. "U-uh, yeah. See you, Marinette."

As the blue eyed girl walked her way back to her friend, Adrien could only stare at her retreating form as his hand moved to caress his scarf. What was happening to him? Why was he suddenly so affected by his _friend_? There was only one other person who had ever made him feel that way, and that title belonged to the other pig tailed girl in his life.

He just didn't understand what Marinette was doing to him.

And it didn't hit him until his birthday, when Marinette shyly approached him and hugged him as she laughed. She put a red box in his hands, encouraging him to open it and joking about how this time she had made sure there would be no confusions.

He opened the box only to find a pair of knitted gloves, a shade of blue that matched perfectly with the scarf she had gifted him a whole year ago.

Adrien took his eyes from her present to the girl that had given it to him, his mouth slightly agape. He blinked at her, which made her giggle softly as a faint blush covered her cheeks.

"Happy birthday, Adrien." 

And as he felt his whole face flush, there was only one thought in his head.

_Oh._

He was completely, and utterly _screwed_.


End file.
